The sum
of £350,000 (plus) was alleged to have been spent on this
refurbishment. It has not been spent as the public were led to
believe it was to be spent, for little of it was spent on Sir
Winston's grave.

It has been spent upon the
entire Churchill family burial plot which has 14 people interred in
it to date. The work included preparing many (unoccupied and future)
family graves.

A large part of the money was spent on a new graveyard footpath.

This money was public money -
being a fraction of the very first payout from the National Lottery,
snatched by the family after they threatened to sell at public
auction the Churchill Archive Papers. Archives which the nation
understood Sir Winston and Lady Churchill had given in perpetuity to
Churchill College Cambridge.

The rich always make the poor
pay for their privileges.

Churchill's grave is
nearest to the footpath (top of photograph) it faces the public. For
some strange reason all the other headstones face away from the
public. This requires the public to walk upon the grass around the
plot to read the text upon the headstones - thus defeating the whole
purpose of the project. Among others buried in the family plot are:-
(this picture is taken from what is in fact the front of the plot)
Not in view....Christopher Soames (son in law), Sarah (daughter),
Diana (daughter).

Middle Row. Centre to Right. John Strange
(Brother) Jennie (Mother) The Large Cross. - Lord Randolph (Father)
(out of view on right of middle row) Randolph (Son), and among those
buried in the front row (back row in the picture) are Sir Winston and
Lady Clementine Churchill and (left) Ivor Charles (cousin).

There are a number of other family graves in
the plot which have also been included in the work.

It would have been sensible to have had a small
engraved plaque stating the names of all those persons interred in
the plot.

_____________________

Below are photographs of the lettering. The
work was done by Joslin (Stonemasons) of Oxford and is
disgraceful.

It is distressing to see that a man who was
arguably the greatest Englishman of this century, has been accorded a
memorial which so looks crude and clumsy. The war grave of the
humblest soldier is - quite rightly - dignified and well designed and
always has impeccable lettering.

People have been
visiting Churchill's grave for the last 33 years and the problems
that have arisen are well documented - and yet not one of those
problems has been addressed in this scheme.

The new tombstone is more difficult to see than
formerly - and thus more difficult to photograph.

There is no paved path to the rear of the
graves - and all of them (except Sir Winston's) face away from the
footpath, so that to read their inscriptions it requires the public
to walk on the grass around the plot - the very thing that caused so
much damage in the past.

_____________________________

There is no information about who is interred
in other graves and the inscriptions are unreadable - thus the
visitors step over the chains to get a closer look.

_____________________________

The money has been spent on all the graves in
the family plot, the only sum spent on Sir Winston's, was for new
footings and the ugly and shoddy tablet.

___________________________

No-one is able to explain how this small amount
of work can have cost such a vast - indeed wholly unrealistic, sum of
money.

_______________________________

If 3.5 million
pounds had been spent upon a successful scheme
for Sir Winston's grave

the Society would
have thought it worth every penny.

______________________________

The project clearly was
not given adequate forethought (Planning permission was not
required).

During the last 2000 years the principles of
monumental design lettering and carving have been perfected.

This design and carving is amateurish and
slipshod. The whole project should be revised and advice sought from
The War Graves
Commission. an example of whose work is
shown below (after 70 years of exposure to the weather).

Click to enlarge

This is the grave of the young man
below,Captain Digby Manfred
ffrench.
He lost his life just two months before the end of World War
I.

Unlike incised
lettering, the bad lettering above will disintegrate within a few
years.

The new tablet should
be replaced by the original elegant tablet (above).

It is interesting to
note how silent The Royal Fine Arts Commission has been over this
matter.

Observe how
the letters V and C
are out of proportion as are the numerals.

Why two styles for the letter
R
(neither correct) on the tablet?

To obtain their
photograph's, each coach party of visitors who arrived during our
photographer's visit included people who climbed on the wall - or
stood upon the new seats - (left above and centre below photographs)
to enable them to successfully photograph the grave.

Many people stepped over the new chains to get
a close-up photograph of the lettering, or to read the faint text of
the older headstones. Every visitor walked right round the plot. The
turf cannot survive this volume of traffic.

The whole object of the scheme was to protect
the graveyard and to enhance the dignity of the grave - it has done
nothing for either.